SBA BOOSTS LOAN EFFORT FOR BLACKS

The Small Business Administration intends to more than double the number of annual loan guarantees to African-American-owned small businesses over the next three years, to a total of $1.4 billion.

John Gray, head of all SBA capital access programs, said Thursday that this new initiative, expected to provide roughly 9,300 startup or expansion loan guarantees in the three-year span, reflects the "changing face of America."

From 1987 to 1992, he said, the number of companies owned by African-Americans jumped by 46 percent, to nearly 621,000, nearly twice the rate of the overall business community during that period, according to Census Bureau data.

Gray was one of three Washington-based SBA financial officials who met with SBA directors from the Midwest district Thursday to discuss the roll-out, part of the agency's stepped-up commitment to underserved groups.

The minority-directed program was initiated by SBA Administrator Aida Alvarez in October when she targeted $2.5 billion of loan guarantees by 2000 to Hispanic-owned companies.

Additional loan-assistance programs will be directed to business owners who are Asian-American, Native American, women and veterans, as well as to small rural and export businesses.

Overall, the SBA has projected $9.2 billion in total loans to be provided to small businesses nationwide in 1998, Gray said.

In the government's 1997 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the SBA provided 1,903 loan guarantees valued at $286 million to African-American entrepreneurs from its long-term and economic development lending programs.

Peter Barca, director of the six-state Midwest district, said 98 loans were made last year to African-American-owned businesses in Illinois, while 282 loans were issued to such businesses in the Midwest. Both figures are double the number of loans issued four years ago.